My dad read to me and my brother every night. When I became a teenager I read his (fairly complete) sci-fi collection for fun and we spent a ton of time discussing it together. It's surprising how similar our tastes are, I don't know if that's genetic or epigenetic but I suspect it doesn't matter and many people could have a similar experience.

I've been maintaining my own collection in the hope that I could give my own children (if I have any, which is looking increasingly less likely) the same experience.